Simple
by Tairako
Summary: [Completed] Sometimes having normal problems gives you a rest from the abnormal ones all around. And sometimes it just makes the abnormal ones worse. [Squiffie]
1. Part One: Hikari

  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own them with a cat, I do not own them with a rat. I do not own them with a dog, the only thing I own's my blog. And even that's negotiable.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wellllllllllllllll... A songfic. One of the Forbidden Types on ff.n now, so unfortunately one that can never be published in its "entire" form on the site. Hopefully, I've managed to work the story enough around the lyrics so that the lyrics aren't _necessary_ to understanding the story, though I wish I could leave them in because they set the mood so well. If you want to read the fic in "full" form, I've posted it up in my LiveJournal, user tairako, the link to which can be found on my bio page. For both the translation of "Hikari" and the lyrics for "Simple and Clean," I've used an absolutely fantastic site that has tons upon tons of anime, video game, and J-pop lyrics, a good many of them translated and translated well.   
And this is my first Squiffie. I'm a Squiffie-nut at heart, and have trolled the archives many times in search of Squiffies to read. Soooooo, of course I had to try my hand at writing one at some point. It turned out... a little different from most Squiffies, I think, and all in all I'm not actually sure if I _like_ it, though I'll say that it certainly turned out interesting for me (yeah, "interesting" is my catchword - I overuse it quite a bit) and I like the way it ended. I had a way I wanted it to go, but it didn't want to go there. Eventually I just had to turn it loose to do whatever it wanted, and this is the result. I have ideas for other Squiffies as well, including one that would probably be a many-chapter affair, but the problem is they're _all_ songfics! Even the multi-chapter one! Ah well, we'll see what happens. First I'd need time to _write_, which is in very short supply this semester... But hey, I hope you enjoy this, or at least not hate reading it .:chuckle:. It's all I ask, really.   
Both "Hikari" and "Simple and Clean" are property of Utada Hikaru and various others, and I make no profit nor claim any ownership of those songs. They're simply very good songs - ones that I enjoy and ones that inspired this story. I can only hope I've done them justice.   
And I figure if they can have modern ceiling fans, they can have television :) Onward!   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
Leon didn't know what had awakened him; usually he slept like a rock, falling asleep right when he hit the bed and waking up, in some unfathomable way, at exactly whichever time in the morning he chose to, as if he had an internal alarm clock that was accurate to the millisecond. It was rare for him to suddenly gain consciousness, and when he did it usually meant trouble. Reaching for the gunblade balanced carefully within arm's length of the bed, he rolled over to look out the window above his headboard.   
A flash of pink and a long brown braid were all he saw as Aerith ran around the corner, struggling into her red jacket as she moved in the direction of the infirmary. Leon relaxed, releasing his grip on his weapon; if it had been an emergency that involved them, she would have woken up the entire house and dragged them all with her. Settling down into his blankets again, he tried to go back to sleep.   
Ten minutes later, at 1:47 AM by his bedside clock, he gave up trying. For whatever reason, he was well awake again, and his stomach was complaining. An earlier bout with some Heartless and an unexpected healing had left him desiring nothing more than a soft bed and a long sleep when he'd arrived home, leading him to miss dinner and collapse into his pillows. The early bedtime was possibly the reason Aerith's leaving had disturbed him, with his body informing him that it had had enough sleep, thank you, and now what it wanted was some food. Struggling sluggishly to his feet and pulling on the shirt that he'd just tossed on the floor earlier, he left his room and headed down to the kitchen, wondering what was there that didn't require cooking.   
After satisfying his hunger with an apple and some toast (unfortunately there hadn't been anything to just heat up), Leon headed back upstairs, hoping he could go to sleep again as it was almost two in the morning and he needed to be at least somewhat alive for training the next day. About to turn down the hall to his room, he caught a flicker of something coming from the other direction and looked back to investigate.   
A door down the hall was propped open a little, allowing some light to spill out into the hall, along with some sound – voices that certainly weren't in the room and a high-pitched laugh. He had to sigh, a sigh which was more of a groan, as he raked his long brown hair out of his face. Yuffie. She was still awake, and he was willing to bet that she hadn't been sleeping before as he had been. It wasn't smart at all; she _knew_ he was going to come drag her out of bed in about six and a half hours, and this wasn't the first time he'd caught her up at this hour. How in the hell did she always have so much energy, both in fighting and in her personality, if she never got enough sleep?   
But instead of moving forward, opening her door, and chastising her as he'd done in the past, for some reason Leon only took one step before faltering. Facing Yuffie now, alone, meant facing something he could no longer deny. He'd been able to ignore, disbelieve, explain, rationalize, or lie to himself every time it had come up, but he just couldn't any longer. Not after today.   
Yuffie was in love with him. There was no longer any way around it; at the battle earlier, when he'd taken his wound, something he certainly didn't like but _had_ happened before, she'd jumped in front of him without thinking to defend him from the onslaught of the Heartless, apparently not realizing that the wound was on his shoulder and he could still fight. True, it was much easier to fight when he could wield the gunblade with both hands, but he'd trained specially for this occurrence and she _knew_ that. She'd seen him going through the practice patterns down in the waterway, strengthening his arms and wrists so he could be prepared for any challenge. But she'd just jumped in anyway, taking over his fight with a sort of desperation to her movement that made absolutely no sense yet was perfectly transparent in its motives.   
And after the fight – which had ended quickly when he plunged back into the fray – she'd insisted on healing him. She wasn't a bad healer, very capable at quick field patch ups, but they both knew Aerith was better. Before this, she'd always just help him back to her if the wound was severe enough. If it wasn't, as with this one, Yuffie would simply take care of it quickly and never a word to Aerith, who would fret kindly over him. This time she was almost panicked as she literally shoved him to the ground, saying he needed to rest before he collapsed, and cast the strongest curative spell on him she knew although he didn't in any way need it. And when she'd caught him giving her an odd look, she'd turned as red as the sun and quickly got up, moving swiftly in the direction of their residence.   
Aerith had been insisting for almost a year that Yuffie had developed feelings for him, ever since that one other time, the only one, she'd done anything near approaching what she'd done today and he'd gone to the healer for advice. Since then, there had been nothing that he could detect, yet Aerith had continued to insist there was something there. He didn't think he was that blind; he spent some time every day with the girl nearly a decade his junior, and ever since that one incident – until today – she'd been ordinary, cheerful Yuffie, the one who snuck into his room and threw all his shirts out the window when he'd pissed her off, liked to dance on the railings of the balconies that covered all the districts, and wouldn't hesitate to back him up in a fight. How could Aerith see something in that behavior when he couldn't see it himself?   
Damnit, she was his _partner_. Even if they didn't always get along, even if they'd sometimes wanted to kill each other, that was a bond that was stronger for him than with their healer, Aerith, or their supervisor, Cid. Yuffie was the one who was by his side every day during the skirmishes, shared patrol duty, fought with in training, entered tournaments with. That was just… something that couldn't be explained. He'd often thought about just abandoning her to her own devices, and once or twice even seriously begun preparations for it, but he'd never been able to follow through on those threats. She watched his back and he watched hers; it was a fair trade, one that kept them and the rest of the town safe as well. After so many years together they knew each others moves, knew what every yell meant. More than anyone in the world, even though her childish antics sometimes made him want to strangle her, he trusted that girl. And he _didn't_ want that partnership broken up because of something stupid like this.   
Leon groaned quietly again, resigned. Now that the memory of the fight and all those thoughts had come up again, he knew there was no way he could rest. Perhaps two in the morning wasn't the best time to do this, but something had decided that two in the morning was the perfect time for _him_ to do this. Another laugh, louder this time, drifted out the door as the girl giggled hysterically at something he hadn't heard. Once again silently cursing whatever form of fate was present in his life, Leon shook his head and moved down the hallway to Yuffie's room – glad he'd remembered to put a shirt on.   
Pausing once again at the door to her room, he looked through the sliver of opening as unobtrusively as he could, taking one more moment to prepare himself for this. She was sitting on her bed in a tank top and shorts, hand over her mouth as she muffled her laughter at the television. Add up yet another area they were complete opposites in: while he preferred his entertainment bound in a hardback, she lived with the remote in her hand much as it was now. A rather large bowl of something sat next to her on the bed, and the lights in the room were off to allow her to see the television better, showing a program he couldn't identify even if he wanted to. She appeared absolutely nothing like earlier, once again just normal, happy Yuffie. Since she wasn't doing anything embarrassing, he didn't bother to knock and instead just pushed the door open, walking in and startling her into squeaking. He made a mental note that they'd have to work more on her ability to sense things around her in the morning.   
"Squall!" she yelped, giving him one of her characteristic irritated looks. He didn't know who she thought she was fooling; he could tell she wasn't as ticked off as she wanted to make him think she was. "Don't you ever _knock_?"   
"It's Leon." The phrase was automatic by now; she'd never fully adjusted to his name change, and the way she'd address him by name just seemed up to whatever whim she had at the time. "And your door wasn't closed."   
_Fwump_. She threw a pillow at him, which he caught. "But it wasn't fully _open_ either. That means 'knock'."   
Ignoring that, he walked over to her bed, sitting down near her feet (and effectively blocking her view of the television), dropping her pillow next to him. "What happened today?"   
Yuffie had the grace to turn a faint pink, which he could barely see in the low light from the TV, and avert her gaze from him slightly, crossing her thin arms over her chest after she muted the program. "You mean, the fight?" He nodded silently, waiting for her to go on. "Err…" She paused, apparently debating something, then looked him right in the eye, brown meeting blue. "You were going to die."   
Leon blinked in surprise; he hadn't expected her to actually answer his question, and if he had he wouldn't have expected that particular answer. "Yuffie, that wound was small. I could keep fighting fine."   
She shook her head, short black hair whipping around her face. "No, you don't get it. Those Heartless, the ones we were fighting, were poisonous."   
"Poisonous?"   
A nod this time, and the small blush, which had receded, came back again as she once again averted her eyes. "Do you remember last week, when you still wanted to train but I was bored with the drill?" He nodded; it had led to another argument, which had probably half been caused by the unseasonable heat of the day, and ended with her stomping out of the waterway in her wet sneakers. "Well, I… went looking for trouble." Her blush deepened again. "I just wanted to beat something up, and beating _you_ up is about as easy as beating up the clock tower or something like that. About as frustrating, too, actually. But I found some Heartless in Third District and just started to fight, and it was going well until I got hurt. It was small, and I didn't think much of it, but after the Heartless were dead it was really painful and it felt like I was getting paralyzed in slow motion. That's what wounded you today."   
Confusion was now the main thing on Leon's mind, and his face, normally neutral, reflected it. "But I didn't feel anything like that."   
"Adrenaline rush," Yuffie supplied. "I looked it up in one of Aerith's books later. It said the poison spread much more easily with movement as well. Which is why I didn't want you fighting." She shook her head a little, not blushing anymore since he hadn't jumped on her for looking for a fight. "You were _supposed_ to stay out of it and give the poison as little chance to work on you as possible, but of course you can't exactly explain to brainless Heartless that you have to stop a battle in order to get your partner to lie down comfortably on a bench until they were all dead, can you? So I tried to take over your fight, but you fought anyway. I think you were lucky it ended so fast, otherwise I couldn't have done anything. It's a fast-acting poison."   
"But… the Curaga?"   
"Fast. Acting." She gave him a bit of an annoyed look. "Powerful. From what the book said, it doesn't kill you, but paralysis in the middle of a fight will get you killed anyway. I didn't know how much had gotten through your system, so I used extreme measures." Yuffie shrugged again. "I did the same to myself, and it worked."   
"Well…" For once, Leon was almost at a loss for words. If she was telling the truth – and he had no reason to suspect she wasn't, he even remembered her collapsing into bed last week as he'd done just that night – she'd gotten him out of a horrendous situation even before he knew he was in it. And really, what more could he ask of his partner? "Thank you, Yuffie."   
She finally smiled, an easy smile that showed off the dimple at the corner of her mouth, unmuting the television. "No problem. What're partners for, anyway?"   
"What indeed," he said quietly, noting the similarities their thought patterns had drifted into after her explanation. Perhaps Aerith had a point after all, on some level: while he still didn't think Yuffie loved him, especially now that the fight had been explained, if they had almost the exact same thoughts they had to be closer than he ever imagined them to be. Two completely opposite personalities had come to the same conclusion. Maybe that just meant it was the right one.   
"Squall?"   
"It's Leon," he replied automatically. And he must be getting tired, for her to notice his distraction. He shook his head a little to clear it, blinking as a new thought formed just out of reach, evading his grasp though he thought it might be important.   
"All right, all right…" The ninja peered at him, head slightly tilted, then picked up the bowl next to her and pushed it right under his face. "Chocolate?"   
Tilting his head back slightly to see better, he could see what had once been a block of chocolate. Yuffie seemed to have broken the entire thing, surely more than even she could eat in one sitting, into bite-sized pieces and was munching on one as she waited for his answer. He shook his head to decline, and she gave him a small pout before pulling the bowl back to her and popping two more in her mouth. "Your loss."   
"I bet." And another division between them: her worship of junk food. Giving up on that fleeting thought, Leon stood and stretched, feeling his back crack in one spot down low, before walking over to the television and snapping it off.   
"HEY!"   
"I'm waking you up in six hours," he said in his tone of amusement, which only Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid could pick up on. "You need to sleep."   
She snorted and clicked the TV on again with the remote. "I don't need to sleep _that_ bad!"   
"Are you planning on getting _more_ than four hours tonight for a change?"   
"Move it, Leon! You're blocking the picture!"   
He just shook his head, walking over to the bed. "You did this to yourself, you know." He was fast; she was faster. But he was standing. He made a lunge for the remote and completely ignored her yell of protest, though he _did_ feel it when one of her feet accidentally kicked him in the stomach as she tried to scramble away with her prize. Latching one hand firmly on the very end of the remote, the scuffle quickly turned into a tug-of-war between his greater strength but weaker grasp and her smaller frame but two handed-pull. Back and forth they tugged, neither gaining the upper hand, until a very devious idea crossed Leon's mind and he let go completely while Yuffie was yanking back. With another yelp the girl tumbled back into her pillows, but she didn't drop the remote as he'd planned for, instead curling protectively around it as quickly as she could. With one last half-hearted swipe, knowing he'd lost this round, Leon gave up on the remote. "Just get some sleep, all right?"   
Yuffie muttered something he couldn't understand as he turned to leave, making him shake his head. But before he got out the door, something railroaded through his mind, making him stop right in the middle of the floor.   
_Wait a minute…_   
Yuffie finally opened one eye and tilted her head up to look at him when she didn't hear him leave, or turn off the TV. "Squall?"   
"You didn't explain everything." Her eyes widened in shock as he didn't correct her, sitting up carefully. Leon didn't even notice the slip up, although somehow he'd always been able to hear them before, even when she was half-asleep and had a numb tongue. But now he turned back to look at her, that thought from before finally in his grasp. He watched her, thoroughly bewildered and showing it for the first time, ever, and he could easily see on her face that she didn't really have any idea how to handle him in this situation. "I understand the poison and all that… but why didn't you explain all that _then_?"   
Even in the dim light of the television, her face flushing a brilliant red was highly obvious. She drew her knees up to herself, wrapping her arms around her legs, and resting her chin on her knees. "You made me nervous."   
"_I_ made _you_ nervous."   
"Yes, nervous, all right, nervous!" she almost snapped, face still lobster red. "You were looking at me like I was out of my mind and I just… just left."   
"You've never had to do that before."   
"I know I haven't, and stop sounding like you're gonna accuse me of something, damnit!" Yuffie wasn't looking at him at all, despite the strong tone of her voice. "You're still making me nervous!"   
"Why in the world _should_ I make you nervous?"   
Yuffie said nothing.   
Leon reached out and flicked the television off again, plunging the room into darkness except for the bit of light that trickled in from behind her curtains. Silence fell, stretching between them, somehow making her even farther away even though she hadn't moved an inch. And in the face of no other good explanation of all her actions, Leon had to fall back on Aerith's year-old pronouncement.   
"Yuffie… what do you feel about me?"   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: To be continued! And please let me know if there are any typos I need to take care of! 


	2. Part Two: Simple and Clean

  
DISCLAIMER: I have no creative ideas for disclaimers anymore, so I'll simply say "not mine" and leave it at that. Because it's the truth and the truth hurts.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ahhh, part two! Once again a songfic, with the lyrics edited out so's I can post it up here on ff.n. I think this segment flows slightly better than the other one did when you take out the song lyrics, but that's my opinion. Yeah, I was going for WAFF, but Squall (the bastard) wouldn't let me do it - grrr. But I kinda like that it isn't really very WAFFy, 'cause, I don't know, I'm a nerd like that ;) And I managed to get a little in at the end!   
This is the second half of "Simple," the end of this short story, and my first try at writing something from Yuffie-in-the-game's POV ("Last Resort" doesn't count yet 'cause she's still eight, even though I'm kinda writing it out of order). You may notice I used "Leon" when talking about Squall in the last chapter, and "Squall" throughout this chapter except for one segment, and that's because I decided that Squall would refer to himself as Leon but Yuffie would use Squall. It's another way to show who's POV we're in at the time.   
Both "Hikari" and "Simple and Clean" are property of Utada Hikaru and various others, and I make no profit nor claim any ownership of those songs. They're simply very good songs - ones that I enjoy and ones that inspired this story. I can only hope I've done them justice.   
I'm thinking I could knock this down to a K+ rating. I rated it at T just to be on the "safe side," but it's really pretty mild. Should I change the rating?   
Remember, the unedited version of this fic is posted on my LJ (user name "tairako"), which is linked through my author's bio page, as well as tidbits, explanations, discussions, and review replies. Onward!   
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
"Yuffie… what do you feel about me?"   
He just _had_ to ask that now, didn't he?   
Her relationship with Squall was the most tumultuous and, ironically, one of the most fulfilling of her life. They were more than just partners, they were partners in _everything_: fighting, eating, arguing. Especially arguing. Their fights could blow the roof off the house and land it in the Coliseum if they let it get out of hand, as they had a few times in the past. Both of them had incredibly strong personalities that wouldn't back down when they thought they were right. She couldn't even remember the number of times they had ended up actually wrestling, still arguing at the top of their lungs (and she always started that and of course he always won, being almost a foot taller and a good seventy pounds heavier, damn him).   
But at the same time, they needed each other. While they'd adjusted well and lived comfortably in Traverse Town, both of them needed an outlet for the personalities that were just too big to shut up in the small town, incapable of embracing the space fully as Aerith's had. And they'd found that outlet in each other. She knew what he was thinking; she'd known _exactly_ what he'd take her actions for earlier. Of course it didn't help that he'd figured out the _truth_.   
She supposed it was almost inevitable that she'd fallen for him; knowing a person as thoroughly as she did him was extremely attractive. Not to mention his _looks_, with all that leather and thin t-shirts and those muscles and that _hair_ and those _eyes_… Plus the fact that she knew they _wouldn't_ kill each other in a fight was a nice reassurance too, she guessed. But she also knew that he didn't think of her that way at all. She knew he trusted her almost infinitely, but romance? Not happening. Not with her. Not with _anyone_, if his past track record was any indication; he hadn't had a girlfriend in the nine years since they'd gotten there, not that there hadn't been plenty of opportunities. But until the Heartless were vanquished and the worlds restored, he had one all-consuming goal that completely erased any trace of romance from his mind. She could probably prance around naked in front of him and he'd just throw some clothes at her and tell her to get dressed.   
All in all she'd done a good job hiding it, considering it had been going on for a year and a half. Only one instance of panic before today, and nothing said to Aerith. The woman was like her big sister, yes, a wonderful person with wonderful intentions, but she could also be a wonderful meddler when she wanted. She wouldn't put it past her at all to discreetly let the information slip to Squall in order to try and push something into happening, if she didn't have a problem with their age difference, and Yuffie needed to handle this on her own. When she first figured it out she was horrified with her fourteen-year-old self, calling herself stupid for an entire _week_ for getting a crush on someone who was pretty much her _teacher_. She'd packed it down inside and kept mum, sure that it would die out at some point soon, but the more time went by the more it grew instead of shrinking. It grew from an admiration of his talent and looks, the basis of her and every other Traverse girl's crushes on him, to an appreciation of him for himself, from his ever-stoic front to the occasional glimpses of humor that slipped through every once in awhile to sheer delight in having an argument partner who could match her every comeback. There was almost nothing about him she _didn't_ love – but she didn't want to tell him that.   
"Yuffie." His tone rang with warning in the darkness; he had more patience with her than almost anyone else, but she was fast reaching the end of it.   
"It's _nothing_, Squall."   
"Leon," he almost snapped, "and yes it is. What?"   
Oh, why did men have to be so _dense_?   
"You'll think I'm an idiot," Yuffie muttered into her knees where she'd buried her head. Even in the darkness she didn't want to look at him.   
"You not saying anything now is making me think you're an idiot."   
She winced. Ouch. But she guessed she kind of deserved it. "…You make me feel… simple."   
That took him aback. He was silent for a moment. "…Ignoring what I just said, I don't think you're an idiot, Yuffie."   
She groaned into her knees. "No, no, not like that." And sighed. "Simple… uncomplicated. Happy." She mumbled the last word, telling him the truth but hoping he wouldn't probe too far. "We're living in a complicated time, with Sora and the Heartless and everything. We go out and fight and protect these people and that's our job and we're heroes but we're just normal people too, ya know? I don't _like_ living on a pedestal. I thought I did, but now I'd rather just have an uninterrupted night's sleep. They don't tell you the downside at hero school." She shook her head again, almost huffing to herself, trying to get her thoughts in order. "But with you, it's all better. It's like… it's just you, and it's like when we're training, just the two of us, and then the Heartless are nothing more than another drill you've cooked up. It's like we're playing a game, almost. We do all the normal things together, so you keep me locked down into the 'normal' section of life, which is something I really need someone to do or else I'll go stark raving crazy." She took a deep breath to replace the air that had rushed out of her while speaking. "I just… that's it, that's how I feel about you, and I really don't want to _stop_ feeling that way either. I need to feel that way, and I need you to help me do it."   
Squall was silent for a long, long time, still standing in the middle of her floor. She could picture him perfectly, in that messed up white t-shirt he'd worn that day that didn't entirely conceal his muscles, arms crossed over his chest with his head tilted downward, allowing his bangs to fall in front of his piercing blue eyes while he stared at the floor, trying to take it all in. "I'm… normal?"   
"No… you let me _be_ normal. You let me be Yuffie. Ever try and have a fight with Aerith?" She knew he was shaking his head at the utter futility of that undertaking. "I wanna kill you sometimes and I wanna kiss you sometimes, but that's just a part of life. You confuse the hell outta me, but not in the watch-out-the-world-is-ending way we've seen too many times. It's… it's different from _our_ normal, and I like it."   
"…You want to kiss me?" For once, she had no clue if the complete neutrality in his voice was a good thing or a bad thing, and she cursed herself violently for ever letting that slip. Hadn't she wanted to hide the fact that she was really head-over-heals for him? Maybe she should just stop dealing in half-truths with him, he always caught where she left things out. But there was no going back now.   
"…Yes," she replied, almost meekly. "I told you you'd think I was stupid."   
Without warning, she suddenly heard her bed creak and felt it sink under his weight as he sat down again next to her feet, not any closer – nor farther away – than he had been before. How had she not heard him move? "I… I don't think you're stupid, Yuffie. It's just… a lot to take in."   
Yuffie wanted nothing more than to dive under her blankets right then and there, certain she was practically radiating heat with the force of her embarrassment, but they were both sitting on them and there was no way she could move him that easily. Feeling her cheeks glowing like radiators, she turned more towards the wall, hating herself as well for being so weak and _girly_. "You don't have to talk to me again, if you don't want."   
"I think that would be a little difficult," he remarked somewhat dryly, "considering we spend half the day together anyway."   
Normally the fact that he didn't just walk away would make her feel better, but she seemed determined to embarrass herself tonight. "You don't have to do that anymore if you don't want to, either."   
He sighed, that characteristic sigh of his that was more of a groan. She knew he was fingering the bridge of his nose as he made that noise; she knew all too much about him. "I can't do that, you're my annoying other half." Squall seemed to be completely incapable of giving straight compliments. "But… what do you expect? I've been convincing myself for a year that you didn't… like me that way, and then all of a sudden this all comes out."   
"I didn't _ask_ for it to come out, I spent a damn good lot of my time hiding it!" she snapped. "I didn't want to tell you but it just slipped out and I couldn't take it back without you getting _more_ suspicious. God, I wish I could just turn back time and stop this from ever happening," she groaned into her knees. "Life was so much less complicated ten minutes ago."   
"I thought you said you liked that I gave you 'normal' problems."   
"Oh, grow up."   
"I am, Yuf. I did. Or, right now, you are. You're…" Squall paused, which in the darkness was agonizing because she couldn't see his expression, couldn't tell whether he was going to give her a lecture or console her or just leave. "You are…" But apparently he decided to go with the last option, because he sighed heavily again and stood, making the bed creak again as he headed for the door.   
"Oh no you _don't_," Yuffie growled, finally bringing her head up and being rewarded with the sounds of Squall's footsteps ceasing. "_You're_ the one who dragged it outta me, so _you_ get to _sit here_ until I figure this thing out with you."   
"And what if I want to go to sleep so I can train well tomorrow?"   
"Don't give me that, you already got at least seven hours."   
"Yuffie, I want to go to sleep."   
"Well I want to erase the past fifteen minutes, and we don't always get what we want so sit down."   
"Yuffie, no matter what you say I am going to go t-"   
She knew exactly where he was. One special talent she had that he didn't was keen night vision, and once she'd gotten her face out of her kneecaps that white t-shirt of his glowed like a beacon in the scant light that filtered through the window behind her.   
So it was no problem to put a shuriken into the door about an inch from his nose.   
Squall himself had beat her into the habit of sleeping armed, saying (rightly, though she absolutely hated to admit it) that if they were awoken in the middle of the night for an emergency, she'd be twice as likely to forget her weapons behind her as to remember them, not being the easiest of people to pull out of a sound sleep. With them in easy reach during the night, if there ever was an emergency, she'd grab them out of instinct.   
Or annoyance.   
The shuriken landed with a solid THUNK in the door, quivering slightly in front of his eyes only a moment after she'd thrown it. He blinked, but made no other outward reaction other than halt his progress; the door was peppered with other shuriken holes that had collected there over the years of their fights. "Aerith won't like that you put another hole in that door."   
In a stark contrast to his neutral voice and his ritual phrase, Yuffie was nearly growling as she responded. "Aerith doesn't care anymore as you damn well know, she knows it's hopeless. Now _get over here and sit down or the next one is in your arm._"   
While she'd said things like that before, she'd been able to detect a tone in her voice that made even her shiver – and clearly put Squall on guard, as she could just see him turning to her and narrowing his eyes in her direction in the dim light. "You never would." Though he managed to keep his neutral tone, she could see enough of his face to know that suddenly it wasn't a joke anymore to him, either. And the one thing she didn't want above anything else was a physical fight – because truthfully, he was _frightening_ in a physical fight. If he wasn't on her side, she'd be running for cover as fast as she could. She could get away, certainly, his speed was no match for hers, but she also knew that would shatter any attempts that might work for fixing this now, with a minimum of damage.   
Yuffie _forced_ herself to bite her tongue and hold her breath for a slow count of ten, letting the tension build up within her as she counted, and let it all out in a great whoosh as he just stood there, waiting. Her muscles seemed to turn into overcooked noodles, and she slumped back against the headboard, suddenly much more tired than she had been. "Maybe I should go to sleep, too," she croaked, even her voice sounding overstrained to her ears.   
But once again the situation reversed, and Squall relaxed back into his negligent posture, and when he spoke again it actually seemed to be with concern. "You're never going to sleep like this, Yuffie." He was such an expert at hiding himself that no one besides the three of them would be able to detect anything different in his tone, but it was plain as day to Yuffie. And she could easily guess what he was thinking.   
_Something like "I don't want to do this, I want to avoid this, I just want this to go away." I can't be too far off the mark. I know I'd be like that. If I didn't tease the poor bastard's head off, that is._   
He came back toward her at a slow pace, pulling the shuriken from the door before he moved and handing it to her silently when he reached the bed. She put it, just as silently, with the others, not quite looking at him. Instead of blushing, now she was pale, and listless, as if the angry spat had drained all the energy from her. "I'm a complete fool," she said flatly, not turning to him. "I am turning into a complete fool, and I wish you'd kill me now before I do something to seriously embarrass myself."   
"You're not a fool, Yuffie." Leon was fantastically confused. All right, Aerith had been correct (and if she found out she'd never let them forget it), but Yuffie was acting nothing like the love struck girls that had sometimes – quite literally – thrown themselves at his feet and proclaimed their undying love for him. Yuffie had laughed at him for days for that… No, no, she wouldn't do that, if only to not act so idiotic. But the way she was acting was such a tempestuous mixture that no sooner had he gotten a grip on one personality then it whirled away into another. He supposed that that was normal; after all, her Deepest Secret had been dragged out of her by the one person that wasn't supposed to know, and to make it even worse they had plenty of history of a thoroughly non-romantic nature between them already. And that history… "You didn't want to ruin the partnership, isn't that correct? You didn't want this to complicate things, or make things worse?"   
She nodded and finally looked at him as he easily and correctly deduced her motivations, and didn't shove them back in her face. "You're Sq- Leon," she corrected herself, almost ironically. "I throw shoes at you to get revenge for your training sessions. I'm not exactly the best-looking girl around, y'know, and you've known me for ages and I've known you since I could _walk_. You could have your pick of the girls in this town if you wanted, but you don't have many other options for a partner out there. And we've been together for so long anyway, that that would only… make things weird," she finished up with a slight shrug. "Weird isn't good, not in a situation where someone might die."   
"No, no it isn't," he agreed neutrally, sitting in the same place on her bed for the third time that night. Yuffie supposed she should be glad that he wasn't walking out anymore, but the damage had been done. No matter if Squall was able to put it out of his mind, forget it, she knew she never would. She'd spent too much time hiding it to _forget_ that it was out in the open. And would _she_ ever be able to work in their partnership again…?   
"Yuffie?"   
His voice broke through her contemplation, and she shook her head a little. "I mean it, Squall. You don't have to keep me as your partner if you don't want to. If it'd be too strange."   
"…Would it be too strange for you?" was all he asked, quietly.   
_It's hard to let it go, Squall,_ she thought, not missing the irony that he didn't correct her that time for the name slip. Or maybe had chosen not to correct her. _You're you and I'm me and we know each other better than anyone and there's a large part of me I couldn't show you but you stumbled on by accident. It's really hard, Squall._   
"No."   
In the dim moonlight, she could see him nod. "Then it isn't too strange for me. We work too well together to break it up."   
"Yeah, we do."   
Silence fell. And grew more uncomfortable by the minute.   
"I should go back to my room," he suddenly said, at the same time she burst out with, "We should sleep, training, y'know." The silence came crashing down on them again as each stopped to let the other continue speaking, and neither took the initiative. It stretched out in the darkness, pushing them apart even though neither was moving, further and further away from each other… closer and closer to cracking the partnership in half.   
Until finally he sighed, and stood, boots thudding dully on the floor but not moving from the bed. "I can't promise anything, Yuffie... I'll need a day or two to think about it. So I suppose you can sleep in if you want tomorrow."   
She held her tongue, though mentally she was cursing herself with language even Cid would be startled by for even _thinking_ that he would be able to ignore it and go on as if nothing had happened. After all, this was him, and this was her, and this was _them_. Sparring partners, argument buddies…   
Best friends.   
Nothing could be the same as it was before.   
"But I don't want to lose my partner."   
A second later she felt lips press against her forehead, stunning her so much she was unable to say anything, a very rare occurrence. "Get some sleep," he said, voice absolutely no different than usual, and no other physical gestures came before he turned and walked out of the room, before she could shake off her surprise and move.   
And when he was gone, the ninja, to her surprise, was able to smile, and whisper, "All right… Squall." 

**-FIN-**

  
  


o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: .:scuffs the ground with her toe:. Well? Did I fail miserably? 


End file.
